Smart Insights: Fashion and Lifestyle

The fashion and lifestyle industry faces just about every challenge going: from demand driven Omni-channel retailing that puts customer loyalty under pressure, to how to best optimize your distribution, or improve the ‘stickiness’ to your brand with successful retail promotions and customer experiences.

To successfully tackle these challenges, fashion and lifestyle companies need a clear understanding of consumer attitude and behavior, as well as brand performance at every touch point.

Whether clothing, textiles or lifestyle products (such as sports goods, accessories, bags, sunglasses), GfK tracks consumer preferences, shopping behavior, purchase trigger points and brand experiences across all points of contact with your brand. Our fashion market researchers analyze this data to highlight areas that will produce the greatest increase in overall customer satisfaction and loyalty. And we identify clear actions to help you achieve growth within the fashion and lifestyle industry.

On average, we spend 4 hours a week on bathing, shaving, getting dressed, doing our hair and putting on make-up (some of us) 1. This combines almost five hours a week for women and just over three hours for men. But what are the big motivating factors that drive us to want to look our best?
Well, when it comes to major (rather than minor) reasons – the most popular motivation is to feel good about ourselves. This was cited by 60 percent of the 27,000 people interviewed, followed by making a good impression on people we meet for the first time (44 percent) and setting a good example for our children (40 percent).
These top three reasons hold true for both men and women. But the number one reason – to feel good about ourselves – resonates more strongly with women (67 percent women, versus 52 percent men), while the making a good first impression and setting a good example for our other two reasons are cited by almost the same percentage of men as women.
Infographic showing top 3 reasons for looking one’s best, by gender

Gender divide

For men, the fourth and fifth most popular major reasons for trying to look their best are to please their spouse or partner and to make a good impression on people of the opposite sex or those they find attractive (37 and 36 percent respectively).
By contrast, women are more motivated in trying to look their best by the wish to express their individuality and because it makes them feel in control (both standing in fourth place equal, at 40 percent each).

Top 3 motivations change with age

All age groups agree that feeling good about themselves is the leading major motivation for trying to look their best. But when it comes to the next most popular trigger, the age groups differ.
Not surprisingly, people under 30 years of age are more focused on making a good impression on people they meet for the first time, and making a good impression on people of the opposite sex or those they find attractive rank. For this age group, these rank 2nd and 3rd as the major reasons for looking their best.
For those aged 30 and above, setting a good example for their children is consistent across all age groups as the 2nd most commonly cited motivation. And when it comes to those aged 50 and over, pleasing their spouse or partner makes an appearance as their 3rd most popular major reason.

Italians, Argentinians and Americans spend most time on personal grooming

Italians lead when it comes to time spent on personal grooming (bathing, shaving, dressing, hair, make-up) – saying they spend just over five and a half hours per week on average. They are followed by Argentinians and Americans, who are equal at just over five and a quarter hours per week.
At the other end of the scale, Chinese say they spend less than three hours per week on average, followed by South Koreans with just over three and a quarter hours and Japanese just over three and a half.
Download our free data charts showing full findings for each of the 22 countries.
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About the study

1GfK conducted an online survey with over 27,000 consumers aged 15 or older in 22 countries. Online data were collected using a staggered field start that completed in June 2015 and weighted to reflect the demographic composition of the online population age 15+ in each market. The countries included are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK and USA.

GfK has released updated map editions for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with coverage of hundreds of changes to administrative and postcode regions. Up-to-date digital maps are the basis for carrying out accurate geographic analyses in geomarketing software and BI systems.

Retailers and manufacturers are under pressure to develop products and services that maximize sales and profit and to keep customers coming back.

Success relies on having the most up-to-date sales data, combined with robust analysis to understand which products and services are performing well in the market – and which are not. With this information, clients can set clear strategies for commercial growth and increase return on investment.

Digital continues to open up new paths to purchase, changing how and where people shop. More and more data becomes available every day, as shoppers embrace multi-channel brand experiences. To stay competitive in this big data, multi-channel environment, businesses need to identify and leverage the most relevant data along the entire path to purchase.

Our geomarketing solutions and consultancy provide our clients with smart insights into location-specific factors that impact the success of business sites, shops, sales territories, target groups, as well as chain store and distribution networks.

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